a band of armed men who move and act together, most often to raid or plunder, though it can also mean a formal unit within a standing army, or the raid itself.
Most often this word names a mobile, hard-hitting company of fighters who live by striking and moving on, the kind of group that burns a town and disappears before anyone can organize a defense. In the stories of Samuel and Kings it almost always belongs to outsiders:
- Amalekites who sack Ziklag
- Arameans who snatch a captive girl
- Moabites and Chaldeans sent as instruments of judgment against Judah
But the word is not reserved for foreigners. Before David became king he led exactly this kind of company, and so did Rezon, who later founded a rival kingdom in Damascus; both men are described, without embarrassment, as chiefs of a band like this.
Over time, especially in the book of Chronicles, the word settles into a more official sense: a division or company inside a national army, counted, organized, and led by named officers, the sort of unit a king could muster on paper. One story captures both shades at once. King Amaziah hires a large corps of soldiers for cash. While they are on his payroll they are simply his division; the moment he dismisses them without pay, that same group of men becomes a plundering band again and raids his own towns in revenge. The word tracks that whole arc, from paid soldier to freelance raider, without changing.
A final, rarer use names not the group of men but the act they carry out: coming back from an outing is described as coming back "from the raid," using this same word for the raid itself rather than the raiders. This is a narrow, specific use, but it is the same underlying idea: whether the word points at the people, their formation, or their deed, it always pictures a body of men that has broken off from the larger community to act on its own, usually with weapons.
Nuances
Whether the traditional Hebrew text of this verse is sound, or whether the word translated "wall" beside it has been corrupted from an original word closer in spelling to this word for "band", so the line originally named two walls rather than a raiding band and a wall.
- majorityThe traditional text is sound as it stands: the verse names two distinct feats, outrunning a raiding band and vaulting a wall.; P. Kyle McCarter, II Samuel, Anchor Bible 9 (1984)
- minorityThe word alongside "wall" should be changed to a different Hebrew word meaning "stone fence," producing a matched pair of wall images.; Julius Wellhausen, Der Text der Bücher Samuelis (1871); S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text of the Books of Samuel, 2nd ed. (1913)
- minorityThe traditional text of this word for "band" should be kept, but the paired word usually rendered "wall" should instead be understood as "open field," based on a proposed cognate.; Mitchell Dahood, Psalms I, Anchor Bible 16 (1965)
Whether the traditional Hebrew text of this verse is sound, or whether the word translated "wall" beside it has been corrupted from an original word closer in spelling to this word for "band", so the line originally named two walls rather than a raiding band and a wall.
- majorityThe traditional text is sound as it stands: the verse names two distinct feats, outrunning a raiding band and vaulting a wall.; Hans-Joachim Kraus, Psalmen 1-59, Biblischer Kommentar Altes Testament XV/1, 5th ed. (1978)
- minorityThe word alongside "wall" should be changed to a different Hebrew word meaning "stone fence," producing a matched pair of wall images.; Julius Wellhausen, Der Text der Bücher Samuelis (1871); S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text of the Books of Samuel, 2nd ed. (1913)
- minorityThe traditional text of this word for "band" should be kept, but the paired word usually rendered "wall" should instead be understood as "open field," based on a proposed cognate.; Mitchell Dahood, Psalms I, Anchor Bible 16 (1965)